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It also defines the love tussles of Blue Is the Warmest Color, Before Midnight and Her, three films where romance must kick back at all the things that conspire against true love, self-doubt among them.

Inside Llewyn Davis tops Peter Howell's list this year.

Blue is the Warmest Color takes the #2 spot among Peter Howell's top films of 2013. (sundance selects)

Before Midnight takes takes the #3 spot among Peter Howell's top films of 2013. (Sony Pictures)

Struggle is all-encompassing in 12 Years a Slave and A Touch of Sin, where the self-entitled elite of 19th-century America and 21st-century China trade humanity for commerce and measure human lives in blood and coin.

Then there are those who have brought trouble upon themselves: the petty con artists of American Hustle, the stubborn sailor of All Is Lost and the greedy lawyer of The Counselor.

Finally, there’s perceptual struggle for all of us, as we parse the complex ideas and images of films such as Upstream Color, which don’t easily yield their secrets.

Here’s my Top 10 list for 2013:

1. Inside Llewyn Davis: The Coen Bros.’ uncanny evocation of the New York City folk music scene in early 1961, starring Oscar Isaac in the career-building role of a struggling troubadour, makes for a wistful, wryly humorous and unforgettable film. The whims of fate and vagaries of artistic success have never been so clearly defined, or so musically.

2. Blue Is the Warmest Color: Abdellatif Kechiche’s coming-of-age lesbian romancer took the 2013 Palme d’Or at Cannes, deservedly so. French actresses Adèle Exarchopoulos and Léa Seydoux shared in the Palme citation for their all-in depiction of love’s riptide of passion, reaction and reconsideration. The sex is laid bare, but so are the utterly believable emotions.

3. Before Midnight: The irresistible climax to Richard Linklater’s trilogy of on-the-run amour finds lovebirds Jesse and Céline (Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy) vacationing and verbally sparring in a gorgeous corner of Greece. The “happily ever after” of romance stories never envisions the runny noses, dripping faucets and unresolved conflicts of real-life couples. This one does, with the banter as pointed as the hard-earned wisdom.

4. Her: The desire for genuine human contact, and the yearning we feel when it is lost, illuminates Spike Jonze’s poignant sci-fi love story, which measures the emotional toll of living too deeply within the virtual world. Joaquin Phoenix and Scarlett Johansson click as the dude-and-diode love match, which is treated without sniggers or shivers. The difficulty of getting and keeping love is the heart of the matter, no matter whether it’s made of flesh or silicon.

5. A Touch of Sin: Fists are raised and pistols cocked in Jia Zhangke’s dystopian and throbbing take on modern China. The screenplay winner at Cannes 2013 is an unusually active and brutal movie for a director previously known for his reserve. Erratically linked stories and characters depict the near-anarchy of modern life in Jia’s homeland, where unchecked capitalism is destroying tradition and civility. Jia shows slayings of every description, yet he films through anger and sorrow.

6. 12 Years a Slave: Britain’s Steve McQueen (Hunger, Shame) nails the horror of America’s slavery shame but also finds humanity in one man’s determination to free himself and return to his family. Chiwetel Ejiofor towers as title slave Solomon Northup, a free New York state family man who is duped and taken hostage to the Deep South, there treated as chattel and worse. Michael Fassbender terrifies as the slave owner out to break Northup and others. They lead a top-flight cast in a film sure to open minds.

7. American Hustle: “Some of this actually happened,” the title card reads, and with that we’re off to the races with David O. Russell’s off-kilter, distrustful and utterly enjoyable yarn about small-time New York con artists caught up in the big-time FBI Abscam bust of the late 1970s and early 1980s. Christian Bale’s a blast as a big-bellied and rug-wearing chiseler who may have rolled the dice one time too many; Amy Adams and Bradley Cooper are his excellent allies and antagonists. But Jennifer Lawrence steals the picture with her brazen ways.

8. Upstream Color: Meanings are multiple, debatable and ultimately pointless in this puzzle box of a film by Shane Carruth (Primer), one of this year’s strangest yet most absorbing works. The writings of Thoreau hint at the film’s man/nature life cycle, and also recurring symbols (mainly circles and colours) that will fascinate book scholars and semioticians.

9. All Is Lost: In a movie year filled with survival sagas, the one that says the least is paradoxically the one we will likely remember the most. Lone seafarer Our Man, played by a resurgent Robert Redford, is in mortal danger in a damaged ship the Indian Ocean may soon claim. It’s pure entertainment for the eyes and mind, as we wonder if Our Man will cheat death. Redford and director J. C. Chandor keep us guessing, steadily building tension.

10. The Counselor: Golden tongues and black hearts enliven this uncommonly erudite thriller built around the pulpiest of stories. Cormac McCarthy’s screenwriting debut, with Ridley Scott directing, presents Michael Fassbender’s title counsellor in the classic situation, familiar to students of Greek myth and Shakespearean drama: a moral man tempted by sin and hubris and brought low by fate. Unfairly assailed by many critics for its alleged verbosity, Cormac’s erudition burns through eardrums.

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